The Two-Way

6:46 pm

Wed September 11, 2013

Satellite Image Suggests North Korea Is Restarting Reactor

This is a DigitalGlobe image of the 5-megawatt (electric) reactor at North Korea's Yongbyon facility, Aug. 31, with steam seen coming from the electrical power generation building.

DigitalGlobe/ScapeWare3dvia Getty Images

North Korea appears to be in the process of restarting a nuclear reactor used to produce weapons-grade plutonium, five years after shutting the facility down as part of international disarmament efforts.

New satellite imagery appears to reveal that the 5-megawatt reactor at Yongbyon, which experts believe can produce enough plutonium for one to two bombs a year, shows signs of being operational.

"This is the reactor that essentially produced the material to build North Korea's nuclear weapons in the past," Joel Wit, a senior fellow with the U.S.-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins University, tells NPR's Geoff Brumfiel.

"Restarting the reactor means that over time they will be able to produce more material for more bombs," Wit says.

He said that sometime in July, North Korea completed construction of a new cooling system to make the reactor operational.

Now, he says, "They are either in the process of restarting or nearing operation."

As The Associated Press reports:

"When North Korea announced its plans in April, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told reporters that restarting the plutonium reactor would be 'extremely alarming' but added: 'There's a long way to go between a stated intention and actually being able to pull it off.' "